Eternal Glorious Fountain Ministry (EGFM)
Programme: Lekki Soul Centre (LSC)
Date: Wednesday, 29th June 2022
We are encouraged to know that our salvation is nearer than when we first believed (Rom. 13:11). It is a reality that we ought to believe. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. (1 John 5:4). When we are brought to the season of our salvation, redemption shows up. The Roman church came into redemption. God wants to cause salvation to spread. For the first time, He wants to harvest a quality number of people. Satan has multiplied sins but God also wants to multiply righteousness.
According to John 1:14, we see calibrations or degrees of glory: blood, flesh and man who is the full flesh. To be born of the will of man is to be born of a kind of glory and to be born of this glory is to be born of substances of inverted everlasting. There are two levels of glory: the glory of everlasting and the glory of eternal. “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” (Is. 65:17). The former creation is different from the present creation. This is because sin and death has happened in the present creation. The former creation was made good (Gen. 1:3-31); but the effect of sin and death on the former creation made it become the present creation. Paul in 2 Corinthians 15 shows that there is a glory of the former just as there is a glory of the new – that which Christ came to usher in.
The ‘new’ began with Christ because Christ is a new man. Christ is not the end of the new. A person is expected to move from Christ the new man into the Son of the living God and then into the Only Begotten Son of God. A man does not start experiencing glory until he has attained the state of the living. Salvation is glory. According to Isaiah 40, we see the speaking of the ministry of the Lord God: the season where the Lord is revealed and is culminating into God. The operation of the Lord is a wide concept. ‘Lord’ means an Inheritor. However, there are classes of inheritors: the Lord of Hosts and the Lord of glory. Jesus in Matthew 13 spoke of the Lord of glory. Also, Isaiah in his vision saw the Lord of glory (Isa. 6:1). The Lord of glory is a Lord with glory. His operation is to come into the sanctuary to prepare sons with His substances to raise them and upgrade their operations.
The Lord of glory can come into the sanctuary, even though that is not the place of His service. The Lord of glory is the Lord that has inherited glory. It is possible for a person to be a lord, yet be without glory. In the book of Revelation, we have the ten kings who were ten horns (Rev. 17:12). As of the time the book of Revelation was written, we see that five of those kings have received their kingdoms but there were those who had not received kingdoms. To receive a kingdom is that they have found a throne to exhibit. In the prophets, we see the Lord God, Lord of hosts and Lord of glory. The ‘Lord God’ is a Lord that has inherited God.
“Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all…” (Gal. 4:1). The receiving of ‘all’ is broken down into measures. A man ought to receive all things of God; but it is important for a man to journey into heirship. Jesus at a point in His journey was a Lord, but not yet a Lord God. By reason of journey, He became the Lord of glory at the point where He was transfigured before the faces of His disciples (Matt. 17:2). To be a Lord means such a one is an heir, an inheritor of things. The Lord of hosts is a Lord that has hosted things inside of Himself. To host things is to inherit things. The Lord of host is different from the other Lords. We journey in lordship. It was said of Jesus who was crucified, that God hath made Jesus…, both Lord and Christ. (Acts 2:36). It was Christ that became an inheritor.
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). This scripture is not about every disciple beholding Him. Neither was this scripture talking about the Jesus they walked with because the Jesus they walked with was not the only begotten of the Father. Although there is an excellent glory (2 Pet. 1:16-17), there is a more excellent glory and there is the most excellent glory which is the glory as of the only begotten Son— this is the eternal weight of glory. A person can be flesh but to be born of the will of man is the glory of flesh. Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2 wrote about this operation. When a man is born of glory, such a one is a son. Glory is for sons. When a man moves into the realm of glory, then he has moved into the realm of sons.
“…for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God…” (Rom 3:23). The falling away is a glory that falls, like a flower of the field (Isa. 40:6-8). The man of sin is a man that was raised by sin. Sin has glory. The least of sins is the works of the flesh which even attracts penalty from nations. Fornication, adultery, etc are frowned at by nations because it is seen as unfaithfulness. But there are things that God frowns at that are loved by nations. Sin has its glory whereas works of the flesh are attached to shame. Sin has glory and honour. One cannot get to that state of glory and honour till such a one has moved into the zones of flesh— born of the will of flesh and of man.
“Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin…” (1 Peter 4:1)
It can only take a Christ to suffer in the flesh. A carnal man cannot go through it. Christ has to be formed in you before you can suffer in the flesh. They need to reveal everlasting works to us for us to have these breakthroughs.
"…arm yourselves likewise with the same mind…" (1 Peter 4:1). The mind here is the mind of the Lord. This is what a Christ must arm Himself with. You need a kind of mind to be able to discern and judge well. This was the kind of mind that enabled Christ to suffer in the flesh. You need the mind of the Lord (Phil. 2:5) to be able to transit from Christ to becoming the Son of the living God or the Son of the Father. "But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man." (1 Cor. 2:15). The spiritual man here is what Psalms 1 was talking about: he is the man who can stand in judgement and who forms the congregation of the righteous (Psa. 1:5). How we see things determine how we give definitions and meanings to things. When the eyes of our understanding are enlightened and when we are given new eyes, a redefinition comes upon everything in our lives.
"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory…" (2 Cor. 4:17). What Paul called light affliction is an everlasting suffering. Peter called it everlasting consolation. He fetched this definition from sight and judgement. New sight begets new definitions. New sights also beget new conversations (lifestyle). Sight stops us from complaining and murmuring. Vision, understanding, comprehension, judgement recalibrated our sight and we see differently. The congregation of the righteous are those who can stand in judgement. Standing in judgement is what Hebrews 2 was saying: I will declare thy name unto My brethren (Heb. 2:12). The declaration of His name to His brethren is judgement.
"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Rom. 8:18). This suffering is to convert us from Christ to the Son of the Living God. Hebrews called it chastening (Heb. 12). Paul called it present suffering (Rom. 8:18). Without suffering, we cannot move into the zone of glory which is from everlasting into eternal. As we journey into works, we come into glory. The scripture above is referring to everlasting works. Everlasting works are works of glory to glory. This is the honour and glory that Jesus received. But there is a glory as of the Only Begotten Son of God (John 1:14).
"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). There is the congregation when He was made flesh. But this is talking of the company of those who had “heard, seen with their eyes, looked upon and handled of the Word of life” (1 John 1:1). This company of people had the word which was made flesh, dwelling among them. He had tabernacled with them. “…among us” in John 1:14 refers to a company in a fellowship. They were beholding something. The image they were beholding is the image of the Only Begotten Son. The Person of the Only Begotten Son was among them.
Right after the declaration of the Beloved Son, He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil (Matt. 4:1). At the temptation of Jesus, Satan showed Him all the glories of this world. Glory is for sons. Satan also has high mountains. Kingdoms or dominions are birth canals or wombs for producing glory. "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). You cannot separate the kingdom from the will. Just as God has His will, fallen spirits also have their will. Satan showed Jesus the kingdoms of this world and then, he told Him about the wills He must do to earn those kingdoms. These were the places where he tempted Jesus to worship him, to turn stone to bread, etc. Some actions we carry out are locked up as wills.
“Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). The kingdom of heaven here is not talking about the present heaven; it is talking about the new heaven. This is the kingdom which cannot be shaken and cannot be moved (Heb. 2:27-28). The present dominion and the former kingdom can be shaken. The present kingdom is what Satan showed Jesus. The former kingdom was Psalm 103:19 "The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens; and His kingdom ruleth over all." From this verse, we can begin to see the calibration of the processes. Each heaven has a representation and an appearance of His throne at different degrees. These heavens are not the same. Paul made us know that there is a third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2). His dominion issues from His throne, in the midst of heaven. The kingdom founts from the throne. The throne is not a chair; rather, it is His will. In each of the heavens, we can see the manifestation of His dominion.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you...” (Rom. 6:14). Sin is a will. Will is desire, thought, longing, law, constitution, formation or arrangement. We should no longer live the rest of our time in the flesh to the lusts of men (1 Pet. 4:2). The lust of men is the will of flesh. If a man does not have the same mind as the will of God, he will use the lust of men. When he does so, he will be born by the will of men. The will of men is lust. Lust is inverted affection, passion or love. When a man has moved from blood to flesh, he will live by the lust of men. Such a man would live by the glory of flesh. When flesh attains glory, it has used the birth canal and has blossomed.
When we learn about everlasting things, we are being prepared for glory. There is no glory without the becoming and making of sons. It is in the becoming and the making of sons that we see glory. Just as God is interested in making men become sons, Satan is also interested in the same.
(2 Thess. 2:3-4) It is the man of sin, the son of perdition, that will sit in the temple of God to show himself as God. He shows himself by displaying glory. He did not just arrive at that point. He was firstly a man; then he was made a son. What produced the man of sin was the lust of men which is the will of man.
Man was a living soul, but he descended to becoming flesh (Gen. 6:3). After becoming flesh, he began to journey to become a man of sin, but God had to cut him down out of love. The flood was to judge flesh that was about to attain glory (Gen. 7:21). Satan was trying to raise glories on earth. On the journey to glory, one would first arrive at praise, then honour before entering into glory (1 Pet. 1:7). Satan also copied this pattern. So, those men were flesh but they were already having access to things. They had begun to have imaginations in their heart; they were conforming to an image. The essence of praise is entrance or access (Psa. 100:4). Those men were finding access to genes of spiritual wickedness in high places. The thoughts of their hearts were wicked continually (Gen. 6:5). Souls were already partaking of substances of spiritual wickedness. Spiritual wickedness is what produces sons of perdition; it makes them irredeemable.
“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:3). The same way Satan brought the kingdoms of this world and their glories to Jesus, was how he came to the sons and daughters of men (sons of Cain). He gave them imaginations such that they became solution providers. They had bright minds. They were erasing the ways of God on the earth and it became difficult to see the connection of God to man. They corrupted everything that a soul could use to connect with God by their imaginations. By those imaginations, they were having breakthroughs in inventions and discovery. Those breakthroughs were altering the genes of the soul which in turn, affected the genes of the body. In no time, giants and fair women were born – products of imaginations. Just as God wants us to conform to His image, Satan is also fighting that we conform to his image too.
The will of man is arranged to raise a man of sin and perdition and they are very subtle. It is terrible for a Christian to be carnal. When you are carnally-minded, you are an enemy of God. That’s why a Christian that is born again and may have learnt the milk of the word of God can no longer be referred to as a carnally-minded Christian. They may be carnal but not carnally-minded. A carnally-minded person is an enemy of God. Such a person is not subject to the will of God (Rom. 8:7). Hence when the will of God is being rolled out, there will be no capacity to do it. As a carnal man, there’s still an aspect of God that can be deployed to work on you to change you from carnality to spirituality.
A carnal man is a man that has been formed by the laws of sin and death, just as Christ is also a formation of the law and principles of faith, hope and charity. To bring a man out of his carnality, you exercise him with love for the saint and love of the brethren. Apostle Paul referred to the exercise of faith as godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Tim. 6:6). This means an ungodly man has exercised with something with which he has gained flesh; he has been born of the will of flesh by usage. So, a carnally-minded man is an enemy of God. But that does not mean that God cannot work upon such a person.
When the will of man comes, a spiritual man could be deceived (Matt. 24:24). An elect is a godly man, one whom Christ has been formed in and is already on a journey trying to move into everlasting life. Romans 8 explains the program of the elect. The elect is a man that has been justified (Rom. 8:33). God’s elect needs to be justified. They are those whom God has chosen after they completed the curriculum of Christ so that they can be conformed to the image of the Son. It is those in this school that could be deceived (Matt. 24:24) or killed (John 10:10).
Spiritual wickedness is not what men think they are. They are thoughts or wisdom (1 Cor. 2:6). Men come into them by using the wisdom of spiritual wickedness in high places by the wisdom of the princes of this world, so there are two works. What produced the beast is spiritual wickedness in high places. The beast embodies wisdom and understanding (Psa. 49:20). However, Satan does not give his power, seat or great authority without a form or constitution in the individual (Rev. 13:2). There must be work that has been done in the individual.
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph. 6:10-11). The devil's wiles are the wisdom of the god of this world which was also addressed in 2 Corinthians 4:4. Paul was saying to us in the passage that when an individual gets to the zone of the devil's wiles, the man no longer contends against flesh and blood but the will of man. The wiles of the wicked start with spiritual wickedness in high places. Blood is the outer court, and flesh is the sanctuary. The rulers of the darkness of this world are what makes flesh graduate to the kingdom of darkness.
“To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.” (Acts 26:18). The power of Satan is principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. When they are being turned from darkness to light, they are being changed from the rulers of the darkness of this world. After being moved from the power of Satan to God and from darkness to light, they receive the forgiveness of sins. But this is not the end; one also needs to also receive the inheritance of things incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away (1 Pet. 1:4). Nevertheless, the first allocation to be received is the turning from darkness to light. After these things have been done, then the believer would have received forgiveness of sins which is the same as being made a godly man; one who has received the covenant of peace or received a heart of flesh.
The rulers of the darkness of this world are thrones or mights and dominions. At the same time, the power of Satan is made up of principalities and powers. The spiritual wickedness in high places consists of fallen seraphs. The persons visiting Genesis beings were fallen seraphs. Satan did not only turn the fallen seraphs, he also heaved or upgraded them. Conversions come with additions. Satan added his substances to them to upgrade them. This means spiritual wickedness is not entirely a cherub but he has the character and behaviour of a negative cherub because he had been turned.
The same goes with rulers of spiritual wickedness in high places. They are not the normal throne and dominion; they are upgraded beings. These activities in the fallen angels were the works of Satan. The lake of fire is given for Satan and his angels (Matt. 25:41); for spirits. Thus, the man that will go to the lake of fire must be angelic, just as God is trying to raise new heaven and new earth and convert man to be like angels (Matt. 25:31).
Satan is using imagination to do his work. These imaginations are not the creativity of the natural man, but alternatives to God (2 Thes. 2:4). He is going to show traits of God. For example, because God is meek, Satan will display false meekness. Another example is the false love he preaches about loving gays and lesbians, and not rebuking them. Jesus warned us to be careful that many will come claiming to be Christ and thereby deceiving many (Matt. 24:4-5). These are the operations of the antichrist. They deceive people with their speeches. They cast a veil and cause blindness so men can use imaginations or thoughts of spiritual wickedness as their strengths. Strength is talking of life (Psa. 27:1). That strength is knowledge and understanding; they are to form ways in men.
“Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind…” (Col. 2:18). Paul is talking about rewards here, but there is a work that will lead to rewards. He is trying to show works that men can generate that would have made them steal the reward from them. The worship of angels referenced in the scripture is not the literal worship men give to gods. Instead, it is the teachings that spirits have taught beings, and those things generate worship. Beguiling occurs in a believer’s journey to everlasting life. The operation of beguiling is subtle. The goal of beguiling is to corrupt the formation of Christ in a believer from the conformity to the image of the Son. He doesn't want man to abide in Christ and then do work that would make him abide in the Son of God. Satan beguiles by conversation (Gen. 3:4-5).
Angels are copies or representations of creation that God brought from Himself. So, Satan, the fallen angel, came to Eve and gave an alternative of God's instruction to Eve in Eden. He told Eve how the tree of the knowledge of good and evil can also make them have the image of God, like the tree of life. He painted the alternative till Eve began to have imaginations (Gen. 3:4-6). An evil spirit spoke until man began to see things.
The end estate of all the things Eve saw was "to be like God". And this is the essence of imaginations– to be like God. This was how the serpent beguiled Eve (2 Cor. 11:3). So, the warning to "not to be beguiled" is to make men know that some men have arisen who have fellowshipped with spiritual wickedness in high places, and something has been worked on their minds and hearts by this fellowship. They had access or breakthrough into very high things upon their minds, getting their supply apart from the head. In the issue of everlasting life, blessing is supposed to be coming from the head, where oil flows from through the body (Psa. 133:2).
Fleshy mind is referred to as "carnally minded". A well-developed carnal mind is a good ground to breed wickedness and imaginations to corrupt the residue of the way of God on the earth. They do this by their works (voluntary humility, show of love and so on). These men sound not to be hurtful, because of their works, which are ways and images. They speak so sweetly and when they do, people accept what they say. It is those who have armed themselves with the mind of God that can discern that they are not of God. Their works appeal to souls and can deceive even the very elect, if God does not cut the days short (Matt. 24:24). Nimrod is an example. He spoke to men and made them journey with him. This is the will of man in place, to give birth to souls.
"And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." (Col. 2:19). If the Head sends things for nourishment to be ministered then the worship of angels also ministers something. As good angels are ministering (Heb. 1:14), fallen angels are also doing the same – they are ministering imaginations and thoughts. Both ministrations are for birth. The latter is to be born of the will of man. Every man savours the will of man (Mark 8:33). Anything that is savoured is a nourishment to the mind and heart. They are thoughts and imagination, just like God has been blessing us with thoughts. Everlasting life is thoughts, judgements, reasoning. And the will of man will also come as thoughts and imaginations that a man will savour.
Satan is bringing down perversions to break down mankind. Satan is driving the evil of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil firstly so that when the good of the tree comes, men would not be able to receive it because they would not know it is from this tree. The warfare we are dealing with is a spiritual one. It is called the wiles of the devil or the wisdom of the princes (1 Cor. 2:6). It is to cause souls to buy into imaginations; to have alternative lifestyle and options.
When Cain left the Presence of God, he went to establish a city. It did not look sinful. He named the city after his son. He became the father of those dwelling in tents and invented music. Inventions of evil are solutions, alternatives, acceptance or appeals that the mind can easily make sense of. This is why laws of everlasting life must be written in our minds to discern this evil. Otherwise, this evil will make sense to a spiritual man (elect) just like a carnal man. This is also why it is not enough to just have Christ as a nature.
Satan paints his ambition to be like God as harmless. He must have preached this ambition "to be like God'' to the angels that fell. But it was a great snare he fell into. This is because there are laws in the spirit: man is not supposed to lean on his own. Jesus Christ understood this and told the Father to “glorify Me with Thy own self” (John 17:5) because He had given out the things the Father gave to Him (John 17:6). This is the order of God. God gives out. God does not take. This is why a man who is learning from Christ is led to give out. But Satan wanted the opposite; he wanted to receive.
Jesus Christ saw that the Father kept giving, pouring, affirming Him and testifying about Him (John 5:34). The Father was not bearing testimony of Himself. These were the things Jesus Christ saw and also kept talking about His Father (John 14:28). In other words, as the Father did, the Son also did. But this was not the conversation Lucifer wanted. He did not want the conversation of "seeking not of his own". This is the conversation God wants to bless us with. They want to strip us of everything man so that we won't be born of man. To be "born of man" is to "seek your own". Apostle Paul testified of Timothy, that he sought not his own (Phil. 2:19-22). Man seeks his own. But God wants to raise a new kind of man, not the man of the present but one that is born of God.